A New Study Says Casual Joggers Live Longer Than Serious Runners

Permission to take it easy on the treadmill, granted: People who run lots of miles at a high intensity have roughly the same mortality rate as couch potatoes, found a new study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. Meanwhile, slower joggers have a 49 to 62 percent lower mortality rate than said couch potatoes. We like those numbers! Using data from the Copenhagen City Heart Study, researchers found the sweet spot for increasing your life span to be around a 5 mph pace, or about a 12-minute mile, and only 1 to 2.4 hours of running per week. Upping the time spent running or the pace won't lengthen your life span; in fact, if you regularly run over 7 mph speeds, you spike your own mortality rate. Statistically, anyway. Of course, previous studies have noted the benefits of heart-pounding exercise, like burning fat faster and boosting your mood. So, no, you don't have to give up your runs or the idea of sprinting your heart out. These new findings simply suggest that going harder, better, faster on the treadmill (while great for your physique) isn't necessarily going to lengthen your life span. For those who care

Permission to take it easy on the treadmill, granted: People who run lots of miles at a high intensity have roughly the same mortality rate as couch potatoes, found a new study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Meanwhile, slower joggers have a 49 to 62 percent lower mortality rate than said couch potatoes. We like those numbers! Using data from the Copenhagen City Heart Study, researchers found the sweet spot for increasing your life span to be around a 5 mph pace, or about a 12-minute mile, and only 1 to 2.4 hours of running per week. Upping the time spent running or the pace won't lengthen your life span; in fact, if you regularly run over 7 mph speeds, you spike your own mortality rate. Statistically, anyway.

Of course, previous studies have noted the benefits of heart-pounding exercise, like burning fat faster and boosting your mood. So, no, you don't have to give up your runs or the idea of sprinting your heart out. These new findings simply suggest that going harder, better, faster on the treadmill (while great for your physique) isn't necessarily going to lengthen your life span. For those who care more about overall health than shedding fat, keeping a more moderate pace and distance makes for a healthy middle ground.